With not much time left till the elections and a couple of debates behind us, the campaign is in a full swing. The candidates are intensely campaigning, pointing to one another’s mistakes and promising a better America. Unfortunately, however, until now none of them has said anything concrete about an issue of utmost importance to many of us, namely, the immigration reform.
In a couple of weeks the American citizens (and among them naturalized immigrants) will decide who will sit in the Oval Office for the next four years. “I have been observing all the developments in the campaign very carefully,” Chris Tourand, 35, a New Jersey resident told Super Express. “I would really like to know what each of them is going to do in regards to the immigration reform.”
A crucial matter
This year’s campaign is radically different than the previous one, when immigration was an issue frequently discussed by the candidates. Running for a second term, President George W. Bush, wanting to attract the immigrants’ votes, proposed the revolutionary Guest Workers Program.
The program did not work out, on the other hand, the problems escalated. “My employer is sponsoring my green card. My case is luckily nearing the end; however, I know that a lot of people who have lived and worked here for years are still waiting for their green cards. They have bought houses and businesses but their legal situation remains unclear,” says one of our readers.
A curtain of silence
This time around, the candidates – Barack Obama and John McCain – have kept stubbornly quiet on immigration. “On the one hand, it is a startling position they are taking. It is quite obvious that Latinos and naturalized immigrants belong to the group of active voters. They’d rather see a person who is friendly to immigrants as well as supportive of amnesty for the undocumented in the White House,” says Katie Vargas from National Immigration Forum in Washington. “On the other hand, it is a controversial and problematic issue that may turn the voters away from the candidate. Nowadays, when elections are won with one vote, the cost of losing the support of one voter may turn out to be too high.”
It’s more convenient to talk about the crisis
“The voter has a right to know each candidate’s opinion on the immigration issue, so it is not entirely fair that both Obama and McCain say nothing about it. One can suspect that they do not want to broaden the divide among American voters. It is obvious that the issue is rather delicate and it is difficult to find a solution that would please everybody in the country. Besides, politicians prefer to talk about the economic crisis or the war in Iraq,” said Norman Eng from the New York Immigration Coalition.
Avoiding the topic, however, will not facilitate solving the problem after the elections, no matter who wins. Immigration law will have to be corrected.
